Scarecrow
by Lollipop456
Summary: AU. As he lays in the asylum, Jonathan Crane recounts his terrible childhood. Why is he the scarecrow? Surprise twist! Features characters from the comics.
1. Chapter 1

The only sounds at Arkham Asylum For The Criminally Insane was the constant cries of the crazy and angered, the only voice that was silent was that of Dr.Jonathan Crane; his body completely restrained in a straightjacket, his head gently resting on his right side. One of the nurses came in with a dinner tray, he laid it down and tried to head for the door; noticing Jonathan was murmuring something.

"Not the nails...not the nails..." Jonathan whispered to himself.

The nurse shook his head sadly and left the room, leaving the manical doctor to think on something dreadfully horrifying. Little did he know, in Jonathan's mind, the only thing he was remembring...was something long past.

_10-year-old Jonathan Edward Crane walked home from his school, carrying his backpack full of books and his lunchbox. His glasses hanged onto his nose._

_He heard a crow and began to follow it, some of his other classmates followed behind him; laughing and snickering at the weird child. Jonathan followed the _

_crow behind the school yards and when he tried to stroke it; it flew off into the blue sky. He heard someone mocking a crowish laugh from behind him, and there_

_was Bo Griggs; he was 13 and Jonathan looked up to him; literally because of his height. _

_"Look at that! Crane just scared a crow!" Griggs laughed out loud_

_"Maybe we could bring him to good use." Peter Whitemore remarked as he came from behind Griggs._

_Soon enough, four boys grabbed Jonathan and dragged him out to the Grigg's garden. They Grigg's were very old-fashioned and made food the easy way. Peter pushed Jonathan to the ground; pushing his face down in mud. Griggs removed Jonathan's glasses and crushed them; Jonathan heard the noise and fumbled around for his spectacles. _

_"Bo, where are my glasses?" Jonathan asked innocently._

_"Who cares where they are?" Peter spatted._

_"No Pete, we'll give him his glasses." Griggs said with a sly smirk._

_Griggs picked up a large blade of glass from the broken set of specs, and thrusted up Jonathan's right hand. Giving him a large cut on his palm. Jonathan let out a cry for mercy. He then grabbed his left hand and made the exact same cut on his left palm, and another cry was let loose. _

_"You like to scare crows, Crane? Look at you. Scrawny and small. Hell! Maybe we should do a switch." Griggs laughed coyly in Jonathan's face._

_Two of the other boys grabbed Jonathan while Peter let down the scarecrow that was keeping watch._

_"No! No!" Jonathan sobbed._

_The two boys lifted Jonathan onto the stand where the scarecrow once hanged. Griggs picked up handful of mud and shoved it into Jonathan's mouth, he quickly tried to spit it out as the boys continued to laugh at him. _

_"You know...considering it's the growing season. Maybe we should make sure that the scarecrow doesn't get lost in the wind. Pete, go to the house and get the nails." Griggs ordered and Peter took off running._

_Peter returned two minutes later with a hammer and the "nails" which while they weren't the small pieces of rusty metal; they were something far worse in Jonathan's eyes. Two fat, sharp, pointy, and dull wooden stencils; Jonathan struggled to keep away, but the hold that these bullies had on him; was undeniably a strong force. _

_"I just love the sound of crows pecking at your head..." Griggs snickered as he lifted the first nail and hammer._

_Jonathan suddenly felt a horrid pain as the nail drove through his flesh and began to be welded into his hand, he yelled for mercy; but to no avail. Griggs moved onto the other hand and got it over with quickly; which made it hurt less, but barely at all. Jonathan felt cool tears run down his face._

_"Not the nails...Bo, please. I don't like this." Jonathan moaned gently._

_"Look's like a storm is coming...hopefully you won't melt, scarecrow." Griggs said soflty as he and the boys fled the garden._

_The child was left hanging in the garden the whole afternoon, and what a dreadful afternoon. Crows pecked continously at Jonathan's limbs, as the rain from the heavens poured down on the helpless little boy. Jonathan felt his hands go completely numbed as his stomach growled from an unexplainable hunger. And when he suddenly fel the urge to faint, he dropped to the ground; Peter had let him loose._

_"Scrawny and scary...you'll make a fine addition to my garden next week." Peter whispered._

_"I don't want to be in anyone's gardens...I want to go home." Jonathan sobbed hopelessly._

_Peter left Jonathan alone on the ground, crying out for help._

"Dad...Mom. Help me." Jonathan murmured.


	2. In His Father's Eyes

"Help me...help me. They hurt me, they tried to kill me." Jonathan murmured contiounsly, trying to rock himself in his restrainable jacket.

_Jonathan picked himself up off the ground and grasped onto the fence to balance his weight out, he felt the numbness of small splinters digging_

_into his aching hand-flesh. He was cold, wet, and frightened; not to mention bleeding from the horrid brusies on his hands. The fence was his_

_cane in getting down the road at least. He groaned and coughed when he finally reached the end of the fence, he collapsed to his knees and_

_dug his hands into the wet mud; grasping the goop in pain and sorrow. He picked himself up a second time and dragged his feet down the road_

_and into the town. _

_He finally made it back to the schoolyards, and pass the local courthouse; meaning his home was only another five blocks_

_away. Another rainstorm began to develop as Jonathan finally made it to his parent's manor, they were both local tycoons and had very busy_

_schedules, but they never neglected their little boy; well...maybe his mother, she hated her son because he looked nothing like her; that made Jonathan feel very worthless to her. Jonathan banged his fist against the door, nobody answered. _

_He began pounding as hard as he could. His father, Richard, heard the calls for help that finally emerged from the other side of the foyer doors. He quickly flung the door open, and found his son; face-down on the front steps. He removed his over-coat quickly and draped it around Jonathan's limpless body. He carried him inside the house and into the family's parlor room, laying him on the satin-red velvet sofa; he began slapping his son lightly on both sides of his face._

_"Dad?" Jonathan raspily called out for his father._

_"Thank god. Are you all right, Johnny?" Richard asked worryingly as he kept a hold on Jonathan's pale hand._

_"Yeah. I just got lost on my way home, I lost my glasses on the street." Jonathan explained in a quick little fib._

_"How did you get those marks on your hand?" Richard showed Jonathan the deep red scars on his white-sheet hands._

_"I fell and landed on a piece of glass." Jonathan said as he began to focus his eyes on the glowing fire and not his father's worried eyes._

_"A tetis shot is probably needed." Richard felt Jonathan's forehead "You're burning up with fever." _

_Richard was about to raise from his spot to call the town's physician when..._

_"Dad!" Jonathan began_

_"Yes son? Is something the matter?" Richard asked he turned back to his son._

_"Don't waste your time...He's on speedial." Jonathan stated sadly, Richard ran his fingers through Jonathan's locks and left the parlor._

_Jonathan wanted to tell his dad about what happened, he wanted to thrust his arms around him and cry into his shoulder and tell him about the whole damn incident!_

_But he couldn't, his father was the only thing he had and he loved him. But if he told him about backing down and allowing Griggs to crucify him, then he knew his_

_father would never think of him anymore. Infact, he would disown him due to his lack of courage. And Jonathan didn't want to run away because he would miss him deeply. So lying about that morning was the only way to keep his father's love. He already lost his mother's respect, if he lost his father's...then poor little Jonathan_

_Crane would have nothing but the talent to scare crows._

"I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it." Jonathan whispered as he drifted to sleep.


End file.
